Disclaimer: I do hereby acknowledge to all that stuff you have heard before and that you don't need to hear again since we all know it by heart. Takahashi-sama is the only one who can do that.

Cyancat (\/)

Let Me Out

Chapter Two - You Wanna Do What?

The night had been confusing and torture all at the same time for Inuyasha. His mind reeled at the few facts that he knew about his brother and even if those were true. There had been something underlying about Sesshomaru and he had never seen it. What was his life if even the things he knew as a child were false? The only person he knew was his brother. There were no memories of his father since he had died months after he was born and the memories of his mother–they were small and fading every day. Sesshomaru was all he had and now it was gone within a night.

Kaede had given him a room to stay in for the night, but he couldn't sleep. He only stared out into the starry sky and pondered the day's events. Before he knew it, the sun had risen and so had Kaede.

"Inuyasha!" He heard her voice call out from the hallway leading to his room. "Please come to the dining room."

Grumbling under his breath, Inuyasha lethargically got up from his place by the window and headed to the directed destination.

As he entered the room, he saw Kaede sitting at the dining table while sipping a cup of tea, but there was another presence to the room, yet he couldn't see it.

"Inuyasha-sama! You're looking well this morning." Called out a thin voice from the empty space of the room.

Quickly scanning the room, his eyes finally spotted a small dot jumping up and down on the table before Kaede. His eyes bugged at the thought of who it might be.

"M-Myoga-jiji?" He questioned, not believing what he was seeing.

"Who else could I be?" Replied the small flea demon and stopped his jumping to sip from a small cup.

"Its-it's just that I never expected you to be so-so..."

"Small? Yes, I am tiny. It comes with the territory, being a flea demon and all."

Inuyasha slumped down in a chair and stared intently at Myoga, still not believing it. He had never seen someone so small, nor imagined that the voice over the phone that he had talked to so many times belonged to this-this tiny little insect.

Kaede broke his intense stare with a throaty-cough, gaining his attention once more. "We've been talking about you, Inuyasha." She commented before sipping her tea.

He shook his head clear of his disbelief and looked to Kaede. "About me? Like what?"

"Like what we are to do about you and your...predicament." She sipped again.

"My predicament?" He slid his chair back in anger. "Hell, I don't know what's going on, yet it seems like everyone else knows! What's going on that I don't know about? What's Sesshomaru up to!"

Myoga and Kaede exchanged glances before turning back to the hanyo.

"I'm sorry, my lord, but we cannot tell you those things yet. Believe me, it will be more harmful to you to know all the facts. We will tell you, but only in time."

Inuyasha snorted and crossed his arms with a 'keh!' "You treat me like I'm a kid!"

"In this world, you are a child, Inuyasha!" Kaede commented. "There are far bigger things than you in this world and you better begin to live with it."

Inuyasha shot her an angry glare, which was countered with one of her own.

"Anyway," She continued. "We were talking about what to do with you. Due to the circumstances, you can't stay here much longer."

"Why not? I thought that it was the plan for me to stay here?"

"No, not here." Myoga corrected him with a laugh. "You misunderstood me. I brought you here because I know that Sesshomaru wouldn't think to look for you here first. Plus, the barrier surrounding the shrine would keep him away for now, until we find you a more suitable place."

"A more suitable place? Just where are we talking about?" Inuyasha's ears perked to catch Myoga's answer.

"It's not definite, but we are making arrangements for you to have an apartment in Kofu."

"Kofu! That's ridiculous! Why are you sending me there!"

"Actually it's to a small city outside of Kofu, but it's quiet, out of the way, and a safe haven for you." Kaede remarked, a grim line of a smile on her lips. "With a few changes, Sesshomaru won't even recognize you."

"Changes?" Inuyasha didn't like the sound of that word. "Like what?"

Kaede eyed him a moment before nodding back at Myoga. "Myoga, he's going to need a delsemtian as well."

"A del-what?"

"My lord, in basic words, a delsemtian is a potion that literally changes your, ahem, scent. Your brother knows you too well and it won't be long before he follows the trail. It was hard enough getting that taxi covered in delsemtian as it is and we can't mess it up like this."

"Does it hurt?"

"No, no, not at all, my lord. It's just that the taste is very...pungent."

"Then there's the matter of his hair and eyes." Quipped Kaede, pointing to Inuyasha's twitching ears. "Those need to be changed as well."

Inuyasha recoiled, jumping out of his seat and backing against the wall. "You wanna do what to my ears!"

Kaede rolled her eyes and waved a hand at him. "Calm down. It's not like we want to cut them off or something, gods. You just need a more permanent spell to cover them up."

Myoga cleared his throat. "And his hair? Should we use a spell as well?"

Kaede sized up the hanyo for a moment. "We'll need to dye it and probably cut it to half its length. Not many people, or men walk around with waist length hair these days."

Inuyasha approached the table in record time and slammed his hand upon the table. "No! You're not cutting my hair! I don't care what you say, no one's touching it!"

Kaede looked to Myoga, who merely nodded his head at the old woman. Instantly she had a hold of his left ear and pulled him along as she headed toward the bathroom.

"HEY, STOP! That hurts! Stop it, stop it, stop it! Ye-ouch!" Complained the young hanyo as Kaede twisted his ear in frustration.

Nearly throwing him into the bathroom, she followed after and slammed the door shut behind her. There was more yelling from Inuyasha, sounding more and more like a dog backed into a corner. Suddenly he was out of the bathroom and running down the hall at full speed.

"Ne Corum Dempari Hasut!" Yelled out Kaede's shrill voice from the bathroom.

Inuyasha stopped instantly, his body somehow frozen solid as stone. His eyes were wild, darting back and forth. "What the hell!" He forced out through clenched teeth. "What the hell did you do to me obaba!"

"Nothing compared to what I really want to do with you!" She yelled back, making her way toward his prone form. "This is for your own good."

Circling around him, she squinted at his menacing eyes. She pulled up a chair and sat before him, staring back with growing agitation for the young hanyo.

"Don't look so angry, Inuyasha. It was only a paralyzing spell and not a strong one at that. I'm surprised that you had succumbed to it. Now are you going to sit still and let me do my job?"

Inuyasha let out a snort. "Yeah, right! Once I get out of this, you are in so much trouble!"

"On the contrary, that spell doesn't wear off. You could stand like that for a few days, you know. How would you like that, hmm?"

Inuyasha's eyes looked away from Kaede's angered face. "I wouldn't." He grumbled out.

"I figured that. Now, are you going to let me do my job? Or do things have to get more drastic?"

"No, damn it. I'll do what you want." His spirit was bent, not broken, but he knew when he had been overpowered.

Kaede's face spread with a malicious grin. "Good. Then let's get to work. Myoga, get the delsemtian ready!"

An hour later, Inuyasha sat on the living room floor as Kaede cut through his thick silver mane. He grumbled under his breath, but kept it to himself for fear of being frozen again. Slowly but surely, he felt his head become lighter as his hair was clipped away to shoulder length. One last clip and Kaede sat back in relief.

"There. I'm finally done." She said, marveling her handiwork.

Inuyasha shook his head, getting a feel for his new hairdo. "It doesn't feel right." He commented.

"That's because no one's ever cut your hair before. Your hair was a wreck, you know. It's a wonder that you can manage life with hair that long, half-demon or not." Kaede stood up and headed down the hall, motioning for him to follow. "Now for Step 2."

"Step 2?" He questioned, his voice wavering slightly as he stood up.

Kaede turned and nodded her head at him. "Of course. We've got to dye it as well."

Inuyasha let out an aggravated groan and unhappily followed the old woman into the bathroom.

After an hour of grumbles, groans, and retorts, Inuyasha exited the bathroom with his bright silver hair dyed to a shining jet black. He kept fingering his hair and grumbling under his breath, as it was not a welcome change, not at all. The fact that he only had to deal with his human side once a month, it was discouraging enough to have to now look like that every waking minute! Slumping down into a chair, Inuyasha glared daggers at the old miko who sat down across from him.

"Anything else you wanna do to me? Put me in a dress and call me Mimi?" He growled at her.

Kaede leaned forward on the table. "We could if you want."

"NO! NO, don't you know when a man is joking! Don't even think about trying it!" He made a fist and waved it at Kaede, trying to look menacing.

Kaede laughed to herself and shook her head at the gullible hanyo. "I hardly would begin to even think that you could pull off being a girl, much less wearing a dress. You're safe...for now."

Inuyasha's face visibly paled at the thought of being put through that, so he decided to keep his mouth shut for now.

"What in the hell did you put in that stuff!" Inuyasha balked as he finished drinking the delsemtian. It had been a bright gold color, much like orange juice. Inuyasha didn't think much of it, but when the liquid touched his tongue, it triggered an instant hate of the fluid. His face puckered like a prune and he had to mentally keep himself from retching. "Gods, it's the worst thing I've ever drank!"

He kept smacking his mouth, trying to rid himself of the awful taste. Kaede and Myoga watched him with laughing faces, as it was a sight to see. Inuyasha glared at them with growing anger and threw the cup into the kitchen.

"You think it's so funny, you drink it!"

Myoga jumped onto Inuyasha's shoulder from the table. "Don't mind us, my lord. Now do you feel any different?"

"Do I feel different?" Inuyasha took a moment to stretch out his arms and take a few deep breaths. He shook his head. "No, not really. Am I supposed to?"

"Well, there should be a sense of tingling throughout the body. Are you sure you don't feel anything?"

Inuyasha shook his head. "Nope."

Myoga thought for a moment, taking a seat on Inuyasha's shoulder. "What am I forgetting?" He pondered out loud. Suddenly his head snapped up. "Ah ha! I almost forgot! Pressure points!"

Myoga quickly jumped to the table and ordered Inuyasha to lay his left hand on the table, palm up. Inuyasha complied with his command, yet was wary as to why it was needed. Myoga motioned for Kaede to take his hand, since he was too small himself for the job, and told her the specific instructions for the pressure point.

"Now, I will need to take a sample of Inuyasha's blood right before you do your job. Once I am done, you bend his hand up, place three fingers at the juncture of his wrist, and as you lay his hand back down, twist your fingers in a clock-wise manner and push down for five seconds. That should trigger the potion."

Kaede rolled her eyes. "Yes, we know, Myoga! You've told me that five times now. Can we get on with it?"

Myoga merely nodded his head at the miko, before jumping onto Inuyasha's shoulder, obviously put off by her remark. Grasping a hold on Inuyasha's neck, he did what every flea and mosquito wanted to do. As a reflex action, Inuyasha's right hand came up and smacked Myoga flat against his neck. He grinned evilly at Kaede, but it quickly changed to a cringe as Kaede did her job and jabbed her fingers into his wrist. Myoga slowly floated down to the table and popped back into his original shape a moment later. Both Kaede and Myoga leaned back to watch Inuyasha's reaction. Though all he could do was stare back at them. He felt no different except for the slight pain in his wrist from Kaede's fingers.

Both turned their back to Inuyasha and began to confer between themselves. Inuyasha sighed to himself, wondering why he had even agreed to his whole thing. His life was ruined and nothing was going right. Maybe it would have been better to let Sesshomaru do what he wanted to do.

Instantly Inuyasha's eyes sprung wide in surprise as he felt a deep warmth flow through him. It flared once, twice, three times through him before silencing. He sighed, relived the potion had worked. Opening his mouth to tell Kaede and Myoga, a lava hot burst shot through his body, flowing through every crevice imaginable and nearly made smoke plume from his ears, leaving him feeling more or less like charcoal.

Myoga turned to ask Inuyasha a question, but stopped in mid-word. "Is...everything okay, young lord?"

Inuyasha forced his still aching eyes to look at Myoga and growled a reply. "Do I look okay! For your information, that damned potion works just fine! Because a freaking volcano just blew up inside of me!"

The bus ride from Tokyo was long and painful for the young hanyo as he sat and stared out the window, watching the scenery fly by. Kaede and Myoga had put him on the bus with detailed instructions to meet their associate in Kofu. There he would be directed to the apartment they had secured for him. Inuyasha groaned inwardly, hoping that the bus would move quicker as a young child squalled its anger two seats behind him. His ears flattened against his head, trying to deny its entry into his head, but the child cried out again and Inuyasha gave up on it.

Looking to the window again, he did a double take seeing his new appearance. He had stared at himself for an hour before he left, but he still couldn't believe that it was him staring back. Coal jet black hair hung down to just around his shoulders, layered for a more hip look. Whatever hip look Kaede was looking for, Inuyasha would never know. He stared into violet eyes, blinking once to make sure they were his and watched his reflection in wonder. Raising a hand, he touched the place where his ears would have been if he had been human but felt nothing except hair. Dropping his hand back down, his fingers brushed against the necklace Kaede had given him. Picking up a purple bead between his fingers, he rolled it around, pondering how the insignificant item could cast such a spell as to mask both his golden eyes and dog ears.

"Here," Kaede said the next day to him, hours before he was put on the bus. She placed a bead necklace in his hands and stepped back, a satisfactory smile on her face.

Inuyasha had looked at the necklace for a moment, inspecting the purple beads interrupted by a collection of white fangs, then held it back out to Kaede. "Sorry, but I DON'T wear necklaces."

Kaede shoved it back at him. "You do now." She corrected.

Inuyasha shoved it back at Kaede again. "Look, I don't need to wear some girly bead necklace. I'm good on my own!"

Kaede, in a final act of desperation, grabbed the necklace and slammed it over Inuyasha's head. Grabbing his shoulders, she turned him round and made him look into a hall mirror. Inuyasha jumped back in recoil at the new face staring back at him. Somehow he had violet eyes and his dog ears were gone, replaced by human ones. He pointed to the new face.

"How is this possible? What did you do to me!"

Kaede sighed once before yanking the necklace back off Inuyasha's head, letting the hanyo side show through again. "Look, it's just a spell to keep you hidden. I haven't done anything to you. It masks your eyes, fangs, and more importantly, your ears." Kaede shoved the necklace back on him. "You are going to be living like this for a while. You can't expose yourself and let your brother find you, just because of a few minor technicalities. We had to cover all the bases. Now, you had better get used to looking like that, who knows how long you're going to have to live like this."

Inuyasha sighed once more, remembering Kaede's words. He wasn't happy about it, having to live, looking like this. But it was even worse that she told him that he'd have to get his hair dyed monthly. Somehow silver roots and black ends didn't match, she told him, so he'd have to either dye it himself or go to a salon. His choice. How degrading enough was this, that he had to do regular up keep of his false hair color? One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to a salon, no way in HELL was he gonna take a step into one of those places.

"Next stop, Kofu Station. Next stop, Kofu Station."

Inuyasha's head titled up to stare at the loudspeaker and began to think through his instructions once more. He was to meet a man at the Kofu bus station, but what was his name again? Dammit! Now he'd forgotten!

"Now arriving at Kofu Station. Please be ready to exit the bus."

Once the bus stopped, Inuyasha followed the flow of passengers off the bus and into the station. Eyes darting back and forth, he kept searching his mind for the person's name he was supposed to meet. Damn, why did he have to be so stupid!

"Inuyasha!"

Inuyasha's head snapped to look to his left, where the unknown voice had come from. A man, around his early thirties, walked toward him waving a hand in greeting with laughter playing on his lips. He had short light blonde hair and a round face. The clothes he wore resembled those of a school teachers.

"Who wants to know?" He said cautiously.

"You're supposed to meet me, remember? I'm Brian Shepard." He offered his hand in greeting.

"Brian?" 'Was that right?' he thought to himself, repeating the name over a few times. Looking down at Brian's offered hand once before looking back to his smiling face, Inuyasha decided that the name had to be right. He quickly took his hand and accepted the greeting. "How'd you know it was me?"

"Kaede gave me a 'brief' overview of what you looked like, plus," Brian pointed to Inuyasha's necklace, "No one else willingly wears a necklace like that."

The two men laughed at Brian's remark, easing some tension between them. After a few more moments of talk between them, Brian directed Inuyasha to follow him and the two made their way to the parking lot.

"So where am I supposed to live here?" Inuyasha asked as they got into Brian's small champagne colored Nissan.

"Well, you're actually not living here. This is kinda like a side-track. This way if anyone looks for you, they look for you in Kofu. You, young man, are going to be living in Ichikawa-daimon."

Inuyasha raised a skeptical eyebrow at Brian.

"Don't give me that look. Ichikawa-daimon is a very quaint place. It's small and out of the way. Kaede had the right idea about bringing you here."

"How in the world do you know Kaede, anyway?"

"She used to work at the shrine in Ichikawa until about two years ago. My wife, Yoshika, and I were married at that temple right before she left. She's stayed in touch over the years and we've...helped her out on different situations."

"Situations like me?"

"Kinda. I usually help her relocate beaten wives, abused children, you know, the stuff that needs this kind of attention. Not to say that you don't need it, just that there are problems that can't be solved with words."

Inuyasha merely nodded his head in agreement and stared out the car window as Brian drove them toward his new home, Ichikawa-daimon.